CAUTION: Website Construction Ahead!!

If you are ever looking for a good laugh on the Internet go take a gander at www.webpagesthatsuck.com/. It kind of baffles me that some people created these websites thinking that they were awesome, because most of them really weren't. Some of them looked okay, but were not functional at all. Half of them I had no clue what they were talking about/trying to sell me and a few of them I couldn't look at because they could cause seizures. Why on earth would you make a website that 50 million people can't look at? Some of the websites I couldn't really tell what was wrong with them, but there were a few that I found pretty hilarious.

#1: highcallingcockers.com
 Reading the name of this website is horrible misleading. I would assume just seeing the URL link that it would some how be related to porn. Nope. It's a woman's website about her cocker spaniels. She uses the website to promote her cocker spaniels and gives you the opportunity to learn about upcoming litters and to contact them if you are interested. But that's not it. There is also a inspirational video about all the similarities between God and dogs, other than having the same letters. You can also read a lovely poem about what puppies dream about. It also has a page for songs from the heart. Some people may enjoy reading about all of these things and want to see her dogs, but there are a lot of design problems. Each time you click on a tab to the left it takes you to a new page with a different background. It would be very easy for people to click on that tab and then think that they are on a totally new website, due to the lack of consistency between pages. Most of the font blends in with the background, so it's nearly impossible to read the website. There is really obnoxious music in the background that cannot be turned off. There is a lot of disorganization on the pages themselves. There is writing and then pictures of the dogs and they have different backgrounds. It just looks really sloppy. While the dogs were nice to look at this website needs some work.

#2: http://www.serene-naturist.com/

This website has a lot going on and if you are under 18 you should not be looking at it. This one also has misguiding title. I assumed that this was going to be being one with nature, but no its about massages. There is annoying music on this website that you can't turn off. There are GIFs everywhere. Flying seagulls, butterflies, other birds, wiggling palm trees, lots of sparkles and words are scrolling all over the place. There is a constant changing of colors, there is some various hues of blue, there is some red, white and purple. Each time you click on a new tab the background changes. Perhaps the most shocking aspect about the website that they don't give any warning to is the amount of nudity. After realizing that the website was about massages I figured that there would be some pictures of people's bare backs being massaged, but I didn't expect to see bare butts and a woman with just her hands over her private parts and a man with just grapes over his private parts. There was no warning at all that you should be over a certain age to look at this site because of the misleading title it would be easy for someone younger to stumble across this web page. These pictures didn't have any rhythm or reason to where they were placed. There was also an interesting requirement for couple's massages. Only the women was allowed to make reservations. Apparently many men had called in to try and experience one of their fantasies, but this establishment doesn't offer those services. There was just too much going on and had I not been doing this research to blog about it I would have taken one look at this website and hit escape.

#3: http://www.burlingtonnews.net/burlington_ufo_center.html

UFOs!!!!!! This website is ALL over it! The overall theme for this website is UFO and Paranormal Research and Education. I'm not going to lie I do believe in the paranormal such as ghosts and spirits, but I find UFOs and aliens a little out there. There are so many things going on that if you were looking for something specific it's going to be a little bit before you find it. There are no tabs or sub tabs to open up as a way to organize the site, so that you can easily search for what you want. Instead it's just a hot mess. There are some dancing aliens, scary animated pictures of aliens and some moving lights. After looking at the website for a little bit to try and figure out what exactly they are trying to show their visitors the main topics were links to some books, movies about aliens and the paranormal, some study that is being done, conferences, a little section on did you know, some pictures of people looking for the paranormal and other facts and eye witness accounts. That is a lot of stuff for one page! They have a lot of color going on as well and some of the ads and words are overlapping as well as some grammatical errors. My notion that aliens don't exist isn't hindering my judgement on this. If I was a skeptic and wanted to know some information I most definitely would not believe anything that was being published on this website            

                                    So, what should we take away from these three websites? 

The first website had a very misleading URL, you want to make sure people have some general idea about what your website is about based on just the URL. Also you need to keep a semi-consistent background. You don't want to have viewers get confused and think they somehow switched to a different site. Also, you need to make sure the color of your font doesn't clash with the background color making it impossible to read.

The second website showed us that more is less. Maybe one or two GIFs on the website is okay and may add a little flair, but having them all over the place takes away from the actual content of the page. You also need to make it look a tube of glitter exploded all over your website. Also if you are going to have GIFs they need to be relevant to what the topic is about. Butterflies, birds and wiggling palm trees don't have a lot to do with massages. This website also had a misleading URL. The last two things to take away from this is that if you are going to have nude pictures there needs to be a warning and there also needs to be some rhythm or reason to where you placed the pictures.

The third website showed us the power of having tabs and sub tabs. Having all that information, whether it was factual or not, should not be all on one page. You can't navigate the website. If you were looking for something specific it would take a person a lengthy amount of time to find it, that is if they even bothered to look after seeing the website initially. Grammar is also important on the web page and discredits you some if there are multiple errors, spell check and proof reading are your friend!

All photos courtesy of Creative Commons and will be removed upon request. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

Tree Huggers Anonymous

I never would have thought that I would look forward to a tree hugging activity, until it became an activity for class and then I couldn't wait! Mostly because how many people can say that they had to hug trees for class? So, I was really looking forward to this field trip and it did not disappoint.

Sarah was my partner for this and I had a feeling that there was a slim chance that I would be able to find my tree right away. I was right. We had to be blindfolded, so that we had no clue where we were.

Sarah lead me ALL over the woods. I decided that I would not cheat at this activity and would really try to find my tree based on instinct, bonding or whatever you would like to call it. Apparently I didn't bond well with my tree or I have really crappy instincts. 

Once Sarah placed me at my tree I decided that I would see how many roots were coming up from the ground, what the circumference of the tree was and if I could reach any branches. I figured that the three roots and the fact that I could reach two branches on each side of the tree would help me find the tree easily, it didn't. It did help me narrow down the search a bit, but I was still the last in my group to find my tree. I also thought that she lead me down to the hill that lead to the water because of the length that we traveled, I was wrong. In the end Sarah's excellent skills of disorienting me and my horrible sense of direction hindered me in this activity. 

At the end of the video you can see me in the purple scarf with my tree right next to where we originally started. 

I didn't really like being the last to finish and that everyone was watching me, even though I assumed it would happen from the beginning. I was close to giving up until Sarah was allowed to play the hot cold game to help me find the tree. When I finally found the tree it was right next to where we originally started. 

Not only was this activity about finding your tree and communing with nature, but it was also about trusting your partner. I am a really clumsy person and was afraid I was going to trip and fall. Luckily my partner was my roommate and one of my really good friends, so I didn't have any reservations that she would purposely let me trip. Had I been paired with someone that I didn't trust this may have been a more nerve racking activity. 

Below is me trying to find my tree. Enjoy :)

Leading Sarah around was a lot of fun. I knew that she wasn't very clumsy, so I concentrated more on trying to get a little pay back and really tried to disorient her, so she would have just a hard of a time trying to find her tree than I did. Leading her around was a little nerve racking even though I knew she wasn't clumsy. One of her 5 senses was cut off and that could easily lead to her being more inclined to trip. I didn't want her to fall and get hurt, so I had to distribute my priorities between getting her disoriented verses her falling and hurting herself. After leading Sarah back to the start and taking her blindfold off she easily found her tree, unlike me who was last. 

Apparently tree hugging isn't just a fun thing to do in class it can also be beneficial to your health. In the book Blinded by Science by Matthew Silverstone he proves that hugging trees can improve your health. Some health issues it can help with are mental illnesses, ADHD, concentration levels, reaction times and depression among others. So not only should we go tree hugging for one class we should do it regularly in all our classes to increase our health. Someone should try and bring that up with their other professors and see what their response is.

There is also a world wide project going on called The Treehugger Project. Their mission is to help people to re-discover their relationship with nature at a very personal and intimate level. They have people around the world create art on trees by using sticks, branches, vines and other natural materials. People all over the world are creating these. To see some of their awesome designs go to their flicker page.

If you want to have tons of fun and improve your health go out there and hug some trees!



All photos and the second video were courtesy of Sarah Hammer'13. The first video was courtesy of Diane Maluso. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

We're Screwed

Today we enjoyed the documentary The Inconvenient Truth. It was really shocking to see all the horrible things that are happening to the earth, most of which we are causing. I've heard people talk about the climate issues, the polar caps melting and issues with the atmosphere, but I guess I didn't realize how serious it really was.

One of the factoids that I found interesting was the melting of the polar ice caps. So, what exactly is happening to the ice caps? Well they are melting...so what does this mean? It means a lot of things. A couple that I found particularly interesting was the fact that the polar ice caps are melting and how that is affecting the ocean levels and the animals.

With the polar ice caps melting one of the main concerns is how the rise in sea levels will affect the oceans and certain parts of the continents. According to researcher John Wahr, "ocean levels worldwide are rising about six hundredths of an inch per year" In 2012, "nearly 230 billion tons of ice is melting into the ocean from glaciers, ice caps, and mountaintops annually" If the Titanic were to make its journey today the likelihood that it would hit a giant ice berg would be really slim. Where would James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet be today with out their Oscar winning/record breaking film? With the glaciers melting the immediate result would be rise in sea levels. The effects of the melting would be small at first raising the sea level only a few inches. This would cause some flooding problems for low-laying costal areas. However, if the west Antarctic Ice Sheet were to collapse then we would have a serious problem. The consequences of this would be, " it would push seal levels up to 10 meters and many costal areas would completely disappear beneath the ocean." This information was looked at in 2012 compared to when an Inconvenient Truth came out in 2006.

Obviously this is a problem. The topic that Al Gore raised though is that if the caps melt and certain parts of continents end up under water, where are all of the people who live there going to? Looking back at what happened during Hurricane Katrina and how all of those people were stranded, their homes gone, their city gone, and not knowing what the hell they were going to do was really scary. If that happened in multiple places around the same time what would happen? How could we possible cram all of these people into even smaller amount of space?

Animals are also suffering because of the ice caps melting. One of the main animals being affected is the polar bear, but other animals are also being affected such as seals and different species of fox.

Another factoid that I found interesting was forest fires. I didn't realize that global warming had anything to do with forest fires. Al Gore mentioned his movie that this was also a major concern for scientists. So, how is global warming causing forest fires? Scientists have found that the reason that this is happening is because of warmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt. With the temperature increasing spring is arriving earlier and causing the snow to melt sooner, which causes the forests to be drier and for longer periods of time. Because of this dryness it is increasing the chance that they will catch on fire. 

Some other global warming factors that are affecting the increase in forest fires mostly has to do with the temperature increases and bugs. Because of the warmer and drier conditions the beetles and other insect infestations are increasing. The higher temperatures and shorter winters are extending the life cycle and survival of the beetles. With the increase of the mountain pine beetles and other insects it is killing more trees and making them highly combustible. 

When Al Gore briefly mentioned forest fires in his movie that premiered in 2005 the amount of forest fires in the United States was 66,552 and the acres that were damaged was 8,686,753. California experienced the most with 7,162 fires. In 2012 there were 67,774 fires and 9,326,238 acres damaged. Texas experienced the most fires with 10,620 spreading across 179,602 acres. There wasn't a huge increase over that 7-year time span, but the fact that is still increasing proves that it is still a problem. 

Forest fires also affect the wildlife that live in those forests or on that land. Obviously the main concern is that it is killing them and destroying their habitats. However the forest fires are also causing other issues for the animals. Some of those are that they undergo major stressors while they are trying to recover from the stress of the fire, not only is their homes being burned, but also dramatically altering their habitat after the fire. These forest fires are also changing the ecosystem balance. 

After watching the movie I decided to look up and calculate my own carbon footprint. After googling it I used Santa Clara University’s Carbon Foot Print Calculator that was specified to college students. The subjects that they asked questions in was transportation, partying, consumption, energy, food, waste and water. After answer the questions I found out that my carbon footprint is 7132.52 KgCO2e/year. Which is more than the average citizens in Brazil, Burkina Faso, China and France, but I was way below average for the average U.S citizen. The U.S citizens average was 17, 584 KgCO2e/year. So I am WAY below average, which makes me feel good. It was a lot better than I expected. The area that was the highest for me was energy and that made sense because I never unplug electronics in my room. They always tell you to and I always forget, so that is something that I could work on. 

Overall, this movie did really scare me. I have always heard people talk about global warming and how we are really harming the planet, but I have never had it all laid out like that. The statistics were really alarming. It really reinforced my need to recycle, but I realized there was a lot more that I could do. However, if the leaders of this country don't get their acts together we may be in a lot of trouble. Al Gore pointed out that we have the solution in our hands we just need the determination to do it! And if we don’t get our acts together....YOLO!!

For more information on Al Gore's movie and global warming visit climatecrisis.net

All photos courtesy of creativecommons.org 

ME!!!!! :)

Yo Homies, My name is Logan Tallmadge. I go to a purple and gold obsessed college. I am from a very small redneck town in upstate New York called Afton. Some really cool stuff has happened in its history, so you should tots click on the link! I am a psychology major and a human services minor. I traveled to India last year during Term 3 (that's what inspired the background) and I absolutely loved it and highly recommend going, if you get the opportunity. I'm a pretty fun person and love to laugh.

I am making this awesome blog because of my Term 3 class. It's called www.women taught by one of my favorite professors Dr. Maluso. So far it sounds like an awesome class and we get to hug trees this week, so I'm really excited! Which is weird I know, but who can say they hugged a tree as an assignment for class? Usually I am allergic to the outside, but I am going to give it a try for this class, plus it will give me the opportunity to use my extensive collection of really crazy cool sunglasses. My family is really big into hunting and getting our meat from local farms. We also have our own chickens and sell the fresh eggs. Recently my mom got stuck in the chicken coop. That would have been a really scary event for me because I am really afraid of birds. She made it out of the coop fine, but was covered in chicken poop. So, not eating genetically engineered meat and eggs is really important to us. 

I like the idea of sustainability and can't wait to learn more about it.